Can Latinos save Detroit?

[Stephane Dumas]

I spotted this article dated from March 2011 from this blog at http://beinglatino.wordpress.com/2011/03/31/can-latinos-save-detroit/

I think Coleman A. Young spinned in his grave if he had heard that.

[Brandon]

^^ If you hooked up some wires to Young to collect the electricity made by his spinning, he might actually be worth something for the first time EVER.

* The "A" stood for "Asshole".

[AsphaltPlanet]

People will save detroit, be they Latino, or any other nationality.  Detroit is a city with immense potential -- its just up to the collective population to realize it.

One of the things that I believe has led to Detroit's decline is the pursuit of the so called 'American Dream'.  The General Motors generation seemed to have the collective desire to move out of the crowded city onto a suburban ranch home complete with a two car garage and a garden in the backyard.  This pursuit of the dream has created the ideology that has lead to the decline of cities like Detroit.  Value is seen in the suburbs, not in the intricate fabric that is the city.

Southeast Michigan is a bit of a paradox.  While Detroit itself continually ranks as one of the poorest cities in America, some of its suburbs of Oakland and Macomb County are continually among America's wealthiest.

[Beltway]

People will save detroit, be they Latino, or any other nationality.  Detroit is a city with immense potential -- its just up to the collective population to realize it.

One of the things that I believe has led to Detroit's decline is the pursuit of the so called 'American Dream'.  The General Motors generation seemed to have the collective desire to move out of the crowded city onto a suburban ranch home complete with a two car garage and a garden in the backyard.  This pursuit of the dream has created the ideology that has lead to the decline of cities like Detroit.  Value is seen in the suburbs, not in the intricate fabric that is the city.

Southeast Michigan is a bit of a paradox.  While Detroit itself continually ranks as one of the poorest cities in America, some of its suburbs of Oakland and Macomb County are continually among America's wealthiest.

The fundamental problem with Detroit is not suburbs, but is the decline in manufacturing in the U.S. and offshoring to other countries.  Ditto for other cities in the "Rust Belt".  Our industrial base needs to become MUCH more innovative and competitive.  Big Labor (i.e. unions) in the U.S. is a major part of the problem.

[Stephane Dumas]

People will save detroit, be they Latino, or any other nationality.  Detroit is a city with immense potential -- its just up to the collective population to realize it.

One of the things that I believe has led to Detroit's decline is the pursuit of the so called 'American Dream'.  The General Motors generation seemed to have the collective desire to move out of the crowded city onto a suburban ranch home complete with a two car garage and a garden in the backyard.  This pursuit of the dream has created the ideology that has lead to the decline of cities like Detroit.  Value is seen in the suburbs, not in the intricate fabric that is the city.

Southeast Michigan is a bit of a paradox.  While Detroit itself continually ranks as one of the poorest cities in America, some of its suburbs of Oakland and Macomb County are continually among America's wealthiest.

The fundamental problem with Detroit is not suburbs, but is the decline in manufacturing in the U.S. and offshoring to other countries.  Ditto for other cities in the "Rust Belt".  Our industrial base needs to become MUCH more innovative and competitive.  Big Labor (i.e. unions) in the U.S. is a major part of the problem.

Not only the decline in manufacturing. The urban renewal projects didn't helped thing either from the pictures I saw at http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=179076&page=29 A Time magazine article from 1961 mentionned the decline http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,873465-1,00.html
http://michiganmessenger.com/27639/1961-vs-2009-detroit-faces-progress-deficit

Coleman A Young tenure with the "us vs them" motto when it referred to suburbs didn't helped things either. Sprawl and suburb also happened everywhere when we check Chicagoland, LA, Houston, DFW, Atlanta.

Then Detroit, like Newark NJ was hit by riots during the summer of 1967. Here some links about it http://www.67riots.rutgers.edu/d_index.htm http://www.detroits-great-rebellion.com/  was a major straw in people moving out to the suburbs. 

[mgk920]

Detroit was also hit HARD by all of the other enlightened stuff that befell many other older USA cities such as forced (by a Federal Judge) crosstown busing for school desegregation (it drove anyone who could afford to into suburbs where their kids could go to the local neighborhood schools), a very weak state annexation law (it slammed the door on the city and allowed the suburbs to flourish), misguided urban renewal projects and government worker unions that have, and continue to, bleed the city's public treasure dry.

It was a perfect storm of every bad thing that post-WWII events and policies could possibly wreck upon a city.

Mike

[Stephane Dumas]

It was a perfect storm of every bad thing that post-WWII events and policies could possibly wreck upon a city.

Mike

And one more bumpy road coming from what some peoples on another forum think of a beginning of gentrification in some areas from what I read on this article from the Detroit News http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20120105/BIZ/201050332

At a recent Midtown preview of a documentary about Detroit to be shown in Germany and France, longtime city resident and artist Olayami Dabls sat in "amazement," he said.

"I have not seen so many people of African descent and people of color in any other documentary about Detroit," said Dabls, who is featured in the film.

That's saying something because Detroit, whose population is 82 percent black, has been the focus of many documentaries with more on the way. Perhaps half of the people interviewed in the documentary featuring Dabls are African-American.

The film focuses on the same theme many boosters, investors and new online media sites cast about Detroit – a new city emerging from its post-industrial ruins. But a growing number of Detroiters say they often feel left out of that positive story. Though Detroit is on the verge of bankruptcy, it is starting to deal with issues of gentrification, where some people are getting pushed out.

Many potential home buyers in Corktown, Midtown and downtown often get outbid, many real estate agents said. It's a combination of not enough high-quality inventory and stiff competition.

Amber Wilson, 28, knows this firsthand. The Southgate resident wanted to move to Corktown, but quickly found herself outbid on at least three residences last year.

"Some Oakland County couple paid more than $100,000 cash for a loft, because they wanted their daughter to move back from Chicago. I can't compete with that," said Wilson, a graphic designer who had been pre-approved for a $120,000 mortgage loan. Nor did she want to buy a home in disrepair, which seemed the only other option for her in that neighborhood.

In downtown, the Trolley Plaza apartment complex was bought by new owners, who upgraded the facility, changed the name to Washington Square Apartments and increased the rent 20 percent or more.

"It went from diverse to mainly young and white," said Jack Sexton, a former resident. "That's too bad because a lot of people wanted to stay but they couldn't afford it."

The Broderick Tower downtown is being upgraded, too. The $5,000-a-month penthouses were among the first to be reserved when the renovated building opens this fall, said Stewart Beal of Motown Construction Partners, one of the building owners.

There is a different city emerging in downtown, Corktown and Midtown, data shows, and it is more white and affluent than the rest of the city.

[Desert Man]

Detroit has North America's largest Arab community, esp. the Arab-American sections of Dearborn/Dearborn Heights was the stage of TLC's reality series "American Muslim" and the northwest end facing Novi has many Chinese, Korean and other East/South Asian populations. The enclave cities Hamtramck and Highland Park are home to many Polish, Russian, Greek, Italian and German American families lived there from the heyday of the automobile industry, also the reason why a high percentage of Detroities since the 1950s were African-American as workers from the Deep South were attracted to these jobs...and note Detroit faces Canada (Windsor, Ontario) was used as a springboard for (sometimes illegal) immigration of Europeans and Asians, as well Africans and Latin Americans to entered Detroit through the strait dividing the two nations. I've seen the movie "Gran Torino" about these racial issues, immigration/cultural clashes, and topics on high urban crime concerning Detroit, but its subject matter is controversial and the movie isn't recommended for those weak at heart...and another, "8 Mile" on the rise of Enimem (Marshal Mathers) where he grew up in the road's poor mainly white trailer parks.